Human
toxocariasis which is caused mainly by the larvae of Toxocara canis and Toxocara cati, is a worldwide
zoonotic disease that can be a potentially serious human
infection. The
enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using T. canis excretory-secretory (
TES)
antigens harvested from T. canis larvae is currently the serological test for confirming
toxocariasis. An alternative to producing large amounts of Toxocara
TES and improved diagnosis for
toxocariasis is through the development of highly specific recombinant
antigens such as the T. canis second stage larva excretory-secretory 30 kDa
protein (recTES-30). The aim of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of a rapid diagnostic kit (RDT, named as iToxocara kit) in comparison to recTES-30 ELISA in Serendah Orang Asli village in Selangor, Malaysia. A total of 133 subjects were included in the study. The overall prevalence rates by ELISA and RDT were 29.3% and 33.1%, respectively, with more positive cases detected in males than females. However, no association was found between
toxocariasis and gender or age. The percentage sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of RDT were 85.7%, 90.1%, 80% and 93.2%, respectively. The prevalence for
toxocariasis in this population using both ELISA and RDT was 27.1% (36/133) and the K-concordance test suggested good agreement of the two tests with a Cohen's kappa of 0.722, P<0.01. In addition, the followed-up Spearman rank correlation showed a moderately high correlation at R=0.704 and P<0.01. In conclusion, the RDT kit was faster and easier to use than an ELISA and is useful for the laboratory diagnosis of hospitalized cases of
toxocariasis.